Thursday, March 27, 2008

While living in 0.0 space there are a few facts of life that are very important to be concerned with if we don't want to spend our time buying new clones, namely gate camps and roaming gangs. While the first one is merely annoying because they sometimes keep you from going where you want to, the second one can keep you cooped up in the station with nothing to do but sort your module inventory, shop on the market (which is limited in 0.0 space), view available contracts, or go afk to do something else. But when you really want to play you're stuck. Well not anymore because now my character will start a secondary career: Industry! When we're out ratting we can collect so much junk that it can almost be considered mining, and after giving away some of the interesting bits to the corp and keeping some of the ever better bits, there is only so many Small Armor Repairer Is and Small Capacitor Booster Is you need to keep (if any in the case of some other modules) so the best thing to do is to reprocess the stuff, and voilà, instant supply of building material !!!

Now I've been a 0.0 resident for just over a month now and I have minerals to the point of being able to build not just ammo and modules, but Rifters, and if all goes well Stabbers in the not-so-distant future. Yes, the ships and modules will all be Tech 1, but the point is that these ships will be expendable so I will be able to try all sorts of things in PvP, some good, some bad, but out of this I will learn. It will also allow me to save money for the coming expenses like higher priced skillbooks, Tech 2 weapons, and Tech 2 ships. Rule Number One of PvP says "Do not fly what you cannot afford" and when I start bringing Tech 2 ships to battles I have to make sure I can back them up and not be flat broke if the enemy decides my ship has to go. Our corp lost a good player and a good person this way. He had started the game around the same time I did and for some reason was obsessed with getting a battleship and probably set his skills on a bee-line to get them. My same-age character is only into BATTLECRUISERS! So our friend bought his Apocalypse, which was probably not fitted well enough, and lost it in his first engagement and the loss left him completely broke. Azyrial Azgard is now no more has he has deleted himself. Az, you were a good guy and a good player, and I sincerely hope you do come back to the game and learn from your past mistakes.

In other news things are heating up in our little area of space. Roaming gangs and camps are getting bigger and nastier, with entire alliances fighting and even teaming up for control of the always-fought-over Sendaya gate in Doril. Rule Number Two of PvP, well, more of 0.0 space, says "Always use a scout". Safespots are also a good idea, so you can scan for activity around the gate. Nowadays I never do a gate-to-gate jump in Doril when I'm alone, and when I want to carry stuff in or out I always double-check the route because even Low-sec can be dangerous. But it's all part of the game and there's nothing I like better than living dangerously >:)

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Well, that was an eventful couple of weeks. Because the alliance lives pretty close to Empire space, gate camps and roaming gangs are a not even an event anymore but more like passing clouds; of course it happens that once in a while you get caught in a sudden shower, or even massive storms. But that's all part of the fun :)

So now that my character is steadily growing up he can fly much better, bigger and faster ships. Of course, I still pale in comparison to my comrades but that's totally natural, but still. Now a lot of things are coming pretty much naturally when a few weeks ago I had to watch every single click I was doing. I still need to work on a few things like judging my speed; being the speed freak that I am, I have a tendency to turn on my MWD even for short distance hops and I end up over-shooting my destination in a spectacular fashion. I've lost the opportunity to tackle opponents because of that and it makes me look like the n00b that I am. Oh well, practice makes perfect so eventually I'll have the speed thing mastered.

Another thing I seriously need to work on if I don't want to lose all the ISK I've made? Don't try to do too much when it's really late/early and falling asleep at the keyboard. Lately, in a total ratting debacle, a Crow pinned my Cyclone between a bunch of rats and the asteroids, and suddenly my money run became my death. You'd think the silliness ends there, but noooooooo. Having been able to get to station in my pod I waited for things to calm down, which didn't take too long as it was around 5AM EST, and hopped into a Rifter and headed towards Hi-sec to go buy me a new Cyclone. Of course when you're tired safety goes straight out the window and instead of going to a safespot near the Sendaya gate in Doril (which I have too...) I warped straight to the gate, right into the arms of a waiting gatecamp !!! Well, my clone was still in Berta at the time so my trip to Hi-sec was a helluva lot faster, except I lost a damn good fitted Rifter worth about 3 million ISK. It's not much for the average player but as I keep reminding my corp-mates (especially when they're asking for specific skills in gang like cloaking), I'm not even 2 months old and 3 million ISK is still a lot of money to me. I'm still in the process of learning the game but I haven't yet formed a financial plan. Of course now that I can solo-rat in 0.0 space ISK will start to steadily come in, but I better not lose too many ships I'm not supposed to lose!

So what about the ships I AM supposed to lose? Yes, I have a garage full of Stabbers waiting to be destroyed but I keep surviving my ops. It's true that most of the time we end up being like 15 against 2 or 3 and I don't exactly fly the type of ship that will be called primary target. So I get in, tackle, orbit, hit as much as I can and pray I'm the lucky one who gets the final blow. And in one occasion, against a lone Rokh somewhere in Curse, Lady Luck smiled at me and I got my first-ever PVP kill in EVE :)) I've also now been on a few killmails by getting a few shots or even just a scrambler lock on some unlucky player meeting our wall of battle. I love those ops where we get 15 to 20 players, sometimes not even of our corp but just Blue to ours (means we're buddies, just FYI), and roam entire regions. One of our bigger ops had us crossing a damn good part of the galaxy and none of us we're expecting on coming back except in our clone because we were fishing BIG fish. But add unwilling targets (quite annoying that... come on guys, come out and PLAY !!!) to superb Fleet Commanding by Fheyd/Suzuko and it turned into a giant tour where none of our gang was lost. Quite the failure for a suicide op !!! At least we did manage to get some kills along the way but that was about 60 jumps of travelling. Sleep was much welcome after that !!!

So now as I write this a vote is happening among the members of the Clown Punchers main corp, as to who from Clown College stays and gets promotted to the main corp and who packs up for parts unknown. I don't want to blow my own horn or anything, but so far I really like beeing in this corp and it's taught me so much that just one or two people could surely never have done. So next time I post here the result will most probably be in. Until then, fly safe and don't forget to dock when Reds jump in !!! ;)